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Consider this log archived for now. All new posts (as of October 2004) are to be found in my blog: MoonFlake.
still no word from my super...wtf?
filling my work time with making a table of eclipsing polars....i already have 20 references for the table alone. fun.
in other news, i've been working on making my lounge livable...or at least more livable. on monday alex and i went to canal walk, looked at a lot of furniture places and bought a cute lamp. then yesterday we went to penny pinchers to get a modular, DIY wall unit, and finally settled on a coffee table-end table combo from Joshua Dore (i apparently have long-lost relatives in the furniture business, who knew) which will only be delivered tomorrow. also, a good strong screwdriver is required to finish putting the shelf together, cos the cheap chinese crap we had has proven to be cheap chinese crap. currently, the unit is lying on the floor of my lounge, which is in chaos. but it should all be up and looking good by thursday, in time for the game :)
yay! i love having a little extra money around to actually make life comfortable, rather than bearable.
22/09/04
Well, yesterday was a little busy, as i received the proofs for my paper, finished off the first draft of my thesis, made supper for 7 people (more macaroni than i've ever made in my life) and roleplayed until midnight. Still, a very satisfying day.
Naturally this morning i thought i'd hit 'snooze' when in fact i'd turned off the alarm, so at 8:11am i jumped out of bed and had to race to get to
varsity in time for my 9am lecture. It's the only time you'll ever see me get out of bed with vigour.
Wednesday's playtest was interesting: Dave was still frantically typing his section when we arrived, so it went on pretty late. Ardi's little 'granny flat' at his parents' house is awesome tho, and i seriously suggest we organise some sort of party there during SchpatCON?.
Other than that...not much. Stuff is going well for schpatCON, Garrick's party at the One Ring tonight, chilled w/e ahead.
Just not looking forward to my supervisor's comments...it can only mean more work :)
17/09/04
yay! thanks to my blocked nose and sore throat i got about 2 hours of broken sleep last night. On the plus side, i finished The Lastling, read Stainless Steel Rat all the way through, and got halfway through Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge.
On the down side, i still had to lecture today.
went to my gran's yesterday evening for supper, as we missed her birthday celebration to playtest the D 'n D module. My uncle made yummy curry, there was basmati rice, naan bread and sambals, and my gran's infamous brandy tart for dessert (we got her nice creamy things and bathy things from woolworths, although alex had to smell-test everything for me cos i can't smell a thing).
And then later, while we're sitting in the lounge chatting over coffee, a show called 'beyond the pain' comes on. it's about body piercing/branding/full body
suspension. A scene of someone getting a prince albert is shown, and my gran goes 'ugh! why would anyone want to do that?'
normal response from a woman who just turned 74, right?
then she delivered the coup de grace:
'his penis isn't even very big.'
yep, that's my gran.
14/09/04
just a small addendum to the good news: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society have accepted my paper for publication!
also, went to see King Arthur on monday...fun. Kiera gets skimpy :)
i was thinking of you yesterday, as i wombled through the observatory in greenwich... congratulations! - GeekDotNeo
Well done 'chelle !!! As a fellow scientist I salute you - although damn, you beat me to it ;P - ArchAngel
08/09/0
right, took a week off cos, well, i could. hence the lack of updatage.
in good news: i got the job!
also: my stupid sister finally broke up with her stupid boyfriend. His final mistake: spiking her drink with femme viagra, without her permission. Then, in the breakup argument, he thinks it's a good idea to finally admit that he'd been sucking cock for money their whole relationship. not like everyone but her hadn't already figured it out and tried to tell her on several occassions.
and: i splurged (splurged, patrick, not sp00ged) and bought myself a sweet mp3 player/flash drive...yay! music at work! w00t!
um...
that's all
kthx
- yay re job - I may be seeing ya in november, projects willing :D - d@vid sep 7 2004
07/09/04
w00t! got a second interview next week! go me!
in other news, i'm taking my little kiddies to the planetarium this afternoon. making sure they've all got a lift there and back is like herding cats.
also, i finished the re-write on the paper, and it's not too bad. supervisor linux needs to read it, and then i'll resubmit.
so, all in all, not too bad a day :)
18/08/04
well, it's another day in the life of me: gave a lecture on special relativity this morning, now i have to edit my paper on eclipsing polars, and then later this afternoon i have an interview for something entirely different thank god.
thanks to norman's post on the wiki about a job opening up at the company where he and lucas work, i have applied and been granted an interview. yay! i really want this job: it will be so nice to be
a) working with people who get my jokes and who i get along with
b) doing something i know i can do well rather than perpetually struggling and feeling inadequate, and
c) getting paid on a regular basis, rather than fighting for every cent of my salary.
but we'll see. maybe they'll decide that because i almost have an MSc? in astronomy, i'm overqualified to test software. shrug. if they ask, i'll just tell them that rather than getting someone only just qualified who will only just do the job, they'll get someone who will excell for exactly the same price. if they can't follow that logic, then i really can't help them.
fun last night at roo's place, watching tv and playing lunch money and chez greek. also, alex and i wrote our All Flesh Must Be Eaten module for SchpatCON? this weekend, and will be playtesting it next weekend. fun!
17/08/04
well, it looks like if i'm going to hand in something decent, i will be missing the august deadline so i can fix the paper. oh well. on the up side, it takes off some of the heat...on the down side, it means i won't be done for a couple more months. sigh.
so, the wiki looks like someone had Tourette's all over it. in light of this i am going to make a general announcement:
i too have the urge to click the ?, but really, a two line definition hardly warrants a spot in RecentChanges. Neither does a reroute. Neither does your archiving...no-one really wants to watch you move your stuff to another page...the ppl who read your page will notice when they read it. They will also notice the nice blue links where you've clicked on the ?, and will follow them if they really give a damn. If they wanted to see every tiny little edit you make, they'd be clicking on RecentEdits?, not RecentChanges. Say it with me, ladies and gentlemen: this is a minor change.
11/08/04
Dragonfire! Yeah!
My first actualy dragonfire (first time i haven't been busy doing something else) started off disappointing but improved in leaps and bounds. Highlights of the w/e include freaking out in Brendan's module (Resonance), going Ocean's 5 in Gone, playing little kids in a fantasy world in Yancke's module (Hush), and just general carousing and silliness. Also, Thurteem roxx0red, and we got great prizes, with many still to come. Thanks must go to everyone who organised dragonfire, and also to Schpat, for stressing out so that the rest of us didn't have to. Also, to Antonio for breaking into his own establishment.
In other news, the referee's report for my paper came back. Despite all the other authors being happy, the referee suggested 'major revision'. Ouch. Considering that this paper forms about half the real content of my thesis, this sets me back. I don't really want to hand in a thesis containing work deemed to require a major revision. Anyway, i have forwarded it to my supervisors asking for advice. Never mind that Supervisor XP is currently in Sutherland, will be back on Tuesday for two (2) days, and is then jetting off to Europe until October (OCTOBER!!!).
This hurts my head.
In light of recent developments, i have decided i would rather flip burgers at macdees than do my PhD?. i've had enough of this academic bullshit. Consider my application process paused indefinitely.
- so you played in the other Unknown Armies module right? the lesson learned: flipping burgers can lead to encounters with hentai monsters 8P - d@vid Aug 10 2004
10/08/04
wow, the national research foundation are the biggest bunch of idiots out there.
so, they've put all their registration online. the website and the registration process are buggy as all hell. the helpdesk responds in 24-48 hours of your email. it's also slooooooow.
so i try to register. i get errors. i send a helpdesk email. they say try register as previous user as they may already have me. i do so, but see that the email address they have for me is wrong. now, the email address is vital because they have to send you some link in order to log in. i send another email. they send me a link where i can update my details. i click on the link, update, and get an error. i try again, and my information disappears. completely. even after repeated attempts to locate it.
i send another email.
the reply informs me that i need to be running Explorer 6. please download it and try again.
i'm on a linux machine.
so i send them another email, and then, just because, i try logging in using the password i initially tried to register, when i got the first error message.
it logs me in with no problem at all. without, i might add, having received their 'vital' email.
right.
then i start filling out the forms. i get to the point where it says 'now download and fill out the Microsoft Word template file, then upload the completed file to the website'.
did i mention i'm on a linux machine????
but fine, i'll just do that at alex's place. i can deal with it. move on to the next section: referees and supervisors. i have to have a letter from my current supervisor. i have to select him from their database of registered users. if he's not registered, i have to let them know so they can send him an email and tell him to register. they will also inform him by email of how to submit his referal letter.
now brian, my supervisor, refuses to be associated with the nrf. he is not on their database. he will not answer emails from them. he does not even want them to have his email address. he doesn't mind giving them a referal letter for me, he just doesn't want to be on their system in any way. if they send him an email, he'll delete it without responding.
right.
i have now spent the entire week trying to apply for one (1) scholarship. i haven't even started applying for the others yet. in fact, i haven't even finished putting in my details yet. it took 2 hours to fill out my basic biographical information, cos every question is a separately loaded page with separately loaded fields, and the page reloads after you've filled out certain (compulsory) fields. every time.
i would agree with brian's policy, but i can't afford to. the nrf is the only source of decent funding in the country. sons of bitches.
30/07/04
phew...long time no update. between ICON and being sick, i haven't been at varsity very much these last two weeks.
the trip to ICON was great...there are too many stories to fit into one update. i will, however, note a few moments:
- patrick's car breaking down before we even left. then standing around at his dad's garage while he tried to figure out why the brakes were smoking. his father's ominous moan of 'oooh god' as he looked at the left rear wheel...not the kind of thing you want to hear from a mechanically minded person just before leaving for jozi. - In my defence: we did get there and back fine, my car was one of the reliable ones this time. (PS: I just can't fathom how italics works on the the wiki) -- If your car breaks down before we even leave, and then miraculously doesn't break down again, it is not counted as reliable. If it had done this a week before you could justify calling it reliable :P Oh, and italiced - the triple % at the end of the lines fucks with it, and is not needed for a bulleted list -- SynKronos
- stu: 'what's that noise?' patrick: 'it's okay. i know what it is. it's not a problem'
- dave locking himself out of the hotel room after he was told that the lock didn't work. and he was only dressed in a shirt and towel. the desk lady offering to grab the towel from him as schpat took a picture...
- ZOMBIES!!!
- cup noodles and more cup noodles...mmmm
- scandalising some poor family with kids who had the misfortune to be seated across from us at the spur.
- tygervalley mall at 8:30 am on tuesday morning...fun.
well, we got back on tuesday, i had a nap, and woke up coughing my lungs out. thank god for tony taking over my lectures or i'd be having a real hard time right now.
anyway, not much else to say at the mo. coffee calls.
27/07/04
two chapters down, two to go.
of course, i haven't had either of those chapters read over by my supers yet, so there may be major rewriting in the offing. but i'm trying to think positive.
on the down side, my back is killing me after hours and hours spent in a crappy chair in front of the pc, typing away...
also, my astronomy course starts up on monday, and all the ppl i need to talk to are on leave. to whit:
- the last 40 pages of the notes are missing, and i suspect the print lady still has them. she's on holiday.
- i need to get notes printed for the students. see above.
- i could photostat the missing notes from my old notes, but the two ppl in possession of a photocopy card i can use are both on holiday.
- i've finally been assigned a room, which is locked, so i have no idea if it has an overhead. which is vital. but the secretary is on holiday, so i can't get the key.
- i would tell this all to the course co-ordinator, in the hope that he might have some advice. but he's on holiday.
sigh.
07/07/04
nice weekend...
saturday roleplaying was awesome...we went back to Bradley's Creek and i was cured of the lycanthropy. Our parents threw a big party and they're all real proud of us. plus they gave us stuff. Then we went back to Queenstown, picked up the package, and started looking around to buy a bear as the druid's animal companion. We found one in the fighting pits...and what i learned from that escapade is this: don't bet money on your party members just cos they're your friends.
sunday was fun...went to my parents, where my gran had taken over the remote so that she could watch the wimbledon men's finals. quite a good final, as they go...i felt sorry for the american, who obviously wanted to win because it was Independance Day and all...but he was a really good loser. Federer won, which is kinda cool cos his mom's south african, so natch we were all supporting him.
my mom made lasagne for supper...mmmm....then rushed home to catch shawshank redemption (there was a horrible fight brewing between my sisters as to whether they'd be watching Sweet Home Alabama on tv or Mona Lisa Smile on dvd, and i didn't want to be around for it). Turned over to e-tv after the movie, just in time to catch the prize-giving for the Euro 2004...Go Greece!
anyway, back to the old slog...one more week to prep before i have to start lecturing again. eeek.
05/07/04
arg...scary session last night. first i got trapped in a cavemouth, stuck between my party members, a ball of flame and two displacer beasts...then
i got bitten by two werewolves. ouch. can't wait till next session to find out if i can get rid of the curse, or if my party will need to invest in some
silver shackles :)
um...dinner with my dad tonight. blegh.
other than that, work is going fairly well, but it remains...well...work.
02/07/04
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